PARENTAL LEAVE IN SWEDEN
Ann-Zofie Duvander and Helena Håkansson
Introduction
When considering Swedish parental leave at a glance one might get the impression that it was fully developed and well-functioning already 20 years ago. Since its introduction in 1974, it had numerous times been reformed to enable the combination of work and family and by the turn of the century most women participated in the labour market and almost all men participated at least to some degree in childcare by using the parental leave (Duvander & Lundqvist, 2025; ESO, 2015).The development over the last 20 years has been both towards more and towards less flexibility in how the leave can be used. Towards more flexibility, the leave has been extended by a month and can now be utilized by others than the parents. Towards less flexibility, the leave has been conditioned with age-restrictions and the income replacement percentage has been reduced. The shareable period has also been reduced as now three months are reserved for each parent.
Throughout the 50 years of Swedish parental leave the political aim has been for men and women to be able to combine work and family. The goals have consistently been gender equality in childcare and in the labour market, as well as economic equality between families (and individuals) with and without children (Duvander & Lundqvist, 2025; Lundqvist, 2019; SSIA, 2024a). It is fair to say that the gender equality aim has been the dominating goal for all governments throughout the period while the aim of economic equality has been less visible. Different governments have also complemented the original aims with other aims such as parental choice, child’s best interest and economic security. In addition, the goals of labour market participation of all parents and a balanced fertility has been discussed in relation to the parental leave (Duvander & Lundqvist, 2025; ESO, 2015; Lundqvist, 2019; SSIA, 2024a).
In this chapter we will describe the major changes in the parental leave policy over the last 20 years, how parental leave use has developed and conclude on how parental leave matters for social sustainability. But we start by reviewing the current legislation. As the legislation is rather intricate this should be seen as an overview rather than a detailed review (see also Duvander & Löfgren, 2023).
Present policies
Length of leave
One issue that complicates any analysis on the parental leave in Sweden is that it is based on two legislations. One legislation determines the right to take time off work and another legislation determines the benefit during the time off. The benefit is calculated on different levels depending first on income prior to the leave and secondly, the leave is divided into periods with different benefit levels (see below).
All parents are entitled to 18 months leave from work after childbirth, regardless of whether benefits are claimed during this period. When the child is older than 18 months the parents have the right to take parental leave with parental benefit from work up until the child is 12 years old. Employers may decline such requests if they happen more than three times a year, but often requests are accepted. This gives great flexibility in when the leave can be used and a common pattern is to stretch the leave, through saving benefit days for later and thereby accepting a lower benefit level while on leave (Duvander & Viklund 2020). The benefit can be used at any level from fulltime seven days a week but down to 1/8 of a day, for instance to cover wage loss for parents who use the right to reduce work hours during the child’s preschool years. Lately such strategies of stretching the leave have gained more attention, and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA) now publishes statistics on length of leave with and without use of parental benefit in addition to their previous parental benefit statistics. In addition, through an overlapping legislation, there is a two weeks’ compulsory maternity leave (without benefit) either before or after giving birth, but this is not a well-known legislation among parents.
The paid parental leave benefit (from here onwards parental benefit) is eight months, (just over 34 weeks or 240 days) for each parent. It is an individual leave and only in cases of one custodian can one parent use the whole 16 months (almost 69 weeks). Out of the 34 weeks allocated to each parent, 21 weeks can be transferred to the other parent, which makes the mother/father quota 13 weeks. The design of the parental leave insurance is thus based on the assumption of individual rights, but in practice it is very common for fathers to transfer days to the mothers and mothers use about 2/3 of all parental benefit days.
Eligibility
Rights to leave and benefit are based on custody, but a sole custodian has the right to transfer days to the other parent regardless of whether the other parent has custody or not (Duvander & Löfgren, 2023). All custodians who live in Sweden receive parental benefit at some benefit level. Sweden applies to the general rules of transferable benefits in the EU/EEA and Switzerland where there is a common set of rules for coordinating family benefits between countries. In the first instance, the country where the parent works pays family benefits. If the benefits are higher in the child's country of residence, that country may pay the difference, known as a supplementary amount. In some instances, the other parent can also get parental benefit from Sweden even if not living or working in Sweden (SSIA, 2024e). Parents seeking asylum are not eligible for social insurance in Sweden, they get a small allowance from the Migration Board for each individual in the family. Parents who get a residence permit with children under the age of 12 years receive 200 days of paid leave for children over 12 months old, and 100 days for children over 24 months old. For children under 12 months at the time of issuing of the residence permit, they receive the full parental benefit (Duvander & Löfgren, 2023).
Make note that the parental leave rights in Sweden are gender-neutral, the same rule applies to same-sex parents as to different-sex parents and to those that are non-binary parents. If the mother is married when giving birth, her partner is presumed as the other parent (Swedish Tax Agency, 2025). However, Swedish legislation does not allow surrogacy arrangements, which makes the process for male same-sex couples a bit different as the second parent has to go through an adoption process to become a parent (MFoF, 2022). The adoption process can in turn delay the right to parental leave and benefit.
Benefits
As mentioned, all custodial parents residing in Sweden have a right to parental benefit, regardless of whether they work, how long they have been in the country or whether they are Swedish citizens. However, the benefit level will be differently determined for parents who have an income, who have worked before childbirth, and also for different periods of leave. There are three levels of the parental benefit: an income-based level, a basic level and a lower level. For the first 26 weeks of benefit there is also a qualifying period regardless of which parent is using the leave. The benefit for the first 26 weeks is dependent on having had an income for the 34 weeks (8 months) leading up to birth that is higher than the basic level of 250 SEK a day, otherwise the basic level applies for this period. The regulation of a qualifying period mainly affects women who almost always use the first part of the leave (Duvander & Koslowski, 2023).
The basic level is, since 2016, 250 SEK a day. For parents with an income which is higher than the basic level, and for the rest of the income-related leave, the income replacement is set at 77.6 per cent of the normal income up to a ceiling that is annually indexed. In 2023 the ceiling was 1 116 SEK a day. For simplicity the benefit is often referred to as being approximately 80 per cent of the normal income but is in reality a fair bit lower. This benefit applies for 28 weeks (6,5 months) for each parent, regardless of when it is used. In addition, just over 6 weeks (1,5 months) is paid at another low level of 180 SEK a day for each parent. Thus, each parent has 34 weeks (or 8 months) of benefits (see details in Duvander & Löfgren 2023).
In addition to the payments through SSIA most employed parents receive Parental leave pay (föräldralön) that has been negotiated in collective bargaining agreements. This applies to all sectors but varies in length and payment depending on agreement. The most generous agreement is the one applying to the state sector which gives parents 10 per cent extra below the ceiling and 90 per cent of the income above the ceiling for a year of leave (Duvander et al, 2024). In the private sector, agreements are negotiated at industry level and separately between white- and blue-collar professions (ISF, 2018a). Over time these agreements have become more generous and now cover most of the labour market (Duvander et al, 2024) but in most cases they only affect the benefit amount, not the length of leave. In practice the collective agreements negotiated by the parties at the labour market indicate that more than the state is involved in parents’ rights and that those rights are more varied than at first glance.
The parental benefit is taxed. Tax rates in Sweden are lower for income from work than income from benefits so income tax is higher for a person on parental leave than a working one. In some cases, this leads to a gender-equalizing effect when the mother works and the father is on parental leave. As taxes are also progressive, it is quite complicated to calculate what is the most economically efficient division of the leave (Crafts & Rothmaier, 2024). Self-employed individuals contribute to the social security system with a separate tax and are eligible for the same parental benefits as employed individuals (Duvander & Löfgren, 2023).
Flexibility
There is great flexibility in how the leave can be used. As mentioned, the parental benefit can be used up until the child is 12 years old, and as parts of days, but only 14 weeks (96 days) can be used after the child turns four years old. Since 2024, parents can use 9 weeks simultaneously during the child’s first 15 months. This is an extension of the first “double month” which was introduced in 2012, and which led fathers to start using the leave earlier in the child’s life (ISF, 2018b). Parental benefit can be used throughout the preschool years, for instance for extending a summer holiday or taking days off at Christmas. Even though the employer has the right to deny parental leave requests more than three times per year, mostly such requests are agreed upon. It is common for parents to save part of the benefit for this kind of flexibility, and it is not uncommon to have some days left unused by the time the child turns 12 years old. Before 2014 the parental benefit could be used until the child turned eight years old. Among parents to children born in 2010, 70 per cent had days left when they turned eight (in 2018). For many there were only a few days not used, on average 33 days per child, but 1/5 of the parents had 9 weeks or more unused (SSIA, 2019a).
Financing
The social security system in Sweden is mainly financed through contributions in the form of employers’ fees which also the self-employed contribute to. In 2024, the employer’s fee was 31.42 per cent of the salary and the self-employed contribution was 28.97 per cent. Out of these fees, 2.6 per cent is dedicated to parental insurance contribution (Swedish Tax Agency, 2024).
Other relevant policies
There is no paid maternity leave in Sweden but two weeks on leave before or after delivery is as mentioned compulsory. There is a pregnancy benefit that can be used the last two months of pregnancy, but only if the job is physically demanding or dangerous and a doctor’s certificate is needed. Around 25 per cent of pregnant women apply for pregnancy benefit and around 25 per cent apply for sick leave at some point during pregnancy. Around 95 per cent of those who apply for those benefits receive it. However, it is also possible to start using the parental benefit during the last month of pregnancy. Only around 30 per cent of pregnant women use neither pregnancy benefit, sick leave nor parental benefit before delivery. Still, they may use holiday days or other ways to reduce work hours in the end of pregnancy (SSIA, 2022).
The former paternity leave is now gender neutrally labelled as “10 days in relation to birth” (10-dagar vid barns födelse). These days are dedicated to the parent who is not giving birth, most often the father, but can also be used by other closely related individuals, for instance in case of a single mother. These days can be used during the first two months and principally the same flexibility and benefit applies as for the parental benefit. However, these days are only available when the user is normally working and for fathers without employment no paternity leave exists.
In addition to the parental benefit, there are several other benefits and policies that facilitate the combination of work and family. The temporary parental leave (tillfällig föräldrapenning för vård av sjukt barn, called vab) for care for sick children is available for 120 days per child and year for children under the age of 12 and can also be used by someone else than the parents. The temporary parental leave is generous in days and replaces 77.6 percent of the lost income up to a ceiling, but most parents only use a few days. Another benefit is the child carer’s allowance (omvårdnadsbidrag) with the main objective to improve the financial means of parents of children with disabilities. The benefit covers needs above the usual care needs and supervision of a child (SSIA, 2018a). In 2023, 91,227 parents received child carer’s allowance for 90,659 children. The benefit amount per month in 2023, averaged at 4,054 SEK for women and 3,039 SEK for men (SSIA 2024b). Approximately four per cent of all children under 19 in 2024 were eligible for child carer’s allowance (own calculation from SSIA, 2024c, SCB, 2024).
Parents have the right to reduce their normal working hours by up to 25 per cent during the child’s preschool years, with accompanying income loss. This right also includes the right to return to the original working hours at any point in time (Duvander & Löfgren, 2023).
The entitlement to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) applies to all children from the age of 12 months. For employed parents, preschool is provided on fulltime basis, and on part time for parents on parental leave for a younger sibling, students, unemployed or similarly out of the work force. The municipalities have the obligation to provide a place for all children applying for ECEC with relatively short notice of a few months. Together with the heavily reduced and means-tested fee for ECEC, put in place at the turn of the century, ECEC is aimed at facilitating parental employment and the household economy (Prop. 1999/2000:129). In 2023, 91.7 per cent of all two-year-old children in Sweden where enrolled in ECEC (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2024). In theory there should be no gap in between the end of leave with parental benefit and preschool. However, the present individual leave and the 13 reserved weeks can create a care gap if both parents are not using their part of the leave.
In Figure 1 the structure of the parental benefit is laid out but make note that the flexibility in leave makes the way parents use the leave much more varied.
Figure 1. Structure of paid parental leave in Sweden 2024
Leave reforms
Since the turn of the century the Swedish parental leave has developed and been reformed on various aspects, from the benefit levels to eligibility criteria and when it can be used.
Benefit level
The benefit level at the basic level (for parents without sufficiently high income) was lagging behind during the economic crisis in the 1990s. Therefore, in 2002 the level was doubled from the more or less symbolic sum of 60 SEK a day (which in no ways was sufficient to live on) to 120 SEK a day. Thereafter it was gradually increased to the current level of 250 SEK in 2016. The main reason for the increase at the basic level was to secure economic security for all families. During this period the basic level was also set apart from the 13 weeks with the lower benefit for all parents (6,5 weeks to each parent with 180 SEK a day).
When the parental leave insurance was introduced in the 1970s, the benefit was 90 per cent of the parent’s previous income. During the 1990s economic crisis it was reduced to 80 per cent and in 2006 the benefit replacement was reduced further, from 80 per cent to 77.6 per cent. At the same time the ceiling of the benefit was raised from 7.5 price base amount to 10 price base amount (see Duvander & Löfgren, 2023) with the aim to facilitate men with high earnings to use the leave. The ceiling is normally annually indexed but had lagged behind and a substantial share of men had an income above the ceiling at the time. These changes met little debate or interest, perhaps as the collective agreements had developed to increase the payments during the leave, and a decennium into the new century most parents were covered for income loss above the ceiling, also those in the private sector (Duvander et al., 2024).
Gender equality
A reform that met more interest was when the Social democratic government extended the reserved month to two months. The first reserved month was introduced in 1995 by a Conservative-Liberal government and was debated intensively at the time (Duvander & Cedstrand, 2022). This reform changed the pattern of use dramatically as a majority of fathers started to use the parental benefit (Duvander & Johansson, 2012). The extension to 9 reserved weeks (two months), in 2002, was less debated but still in focus for the development of gender equality reforms. At the same time the leave was extended by just over four weeks, which meant that fathers could increase their leave without inflicting on mothers’ leave. The extension of the leave to 69 weeks (16 months) led to both women and men increasing their use of benefit days (Duvander & Johansson, 2014). The second reserved month mainly led to an increase in leave among middle income men, as the high-income men already used two months on average, and the low-income men did not on average extend their leave in accordance with the reform’s intentions.
In the early 2000s, gender equality was at the core of the political discussion about parental leave. There were strong advocates for completely individualizing the leave and thereby making it impossible for one parent (read mother) to use more than half of the days. But there was also a strong resistance towards more reserved months. The Conservative-Liberal government tried a new way to increase men’s share of the parental leave by introducing a gender equality bonus in 2008. However, the bonus was complicated to use and initially did not show any change in the gendered use of the leave (Duvander & Johansson, 2012). The regulations were later simplified but it was deemed as a not very successful way to incentivize sharing of the leave, so the policy was eventually abolished. In 2016 the new Social democratic government instead introduced a third reserved month, thereby extending the reserved period to 13 weeks. This led to men using the leave somewhat more, but for every extension introduced in the reserved period, the change in fathers’ use has been slighter. The reforms however led to that 40 per cent of fathers use more than 3 months of parental benefit (SSIA, 2019b).
More flexibility
Another recurring subject is the flexibility of the leave, how it can be used, by whom and when. Several changes have taken place, in order to both reduce the flexibility in some respects, but also as to increase it in other. Before the introduction of the double days in 2012 only one parent could use the leave benefit at a time, but the double days made it possible to share the care of the children during four weeks of parental benefit together. Often this was a period to transition from one carer at home to another. Initially, the double days had to be used during the child’s first year but the time span and the days that can be used together have since been expanded. The double days are used by a significant share of the parents, and it is often deemed a popular reform (ISF, 2018b).
Another reform that received a lot of attention and debate is the opening up for others than the immediate and original parents to use parental benefit. In 2019 it was made possible for a parent to transfer four weeks of his/her (unreserved) parental benefit to a co-resident partner. This was extended to just over six weeks in 2024, together with the change that parental benefit can be transferred to anyone suitable according to the parent. It could thus be transferred to for example a non-resident partner, a sister, a grandfather or close friend. The opening up to other users was motivated by new family forms and also by parents’ need for more flexibility to combine work and family. The self-employed were a group specifically mentioned as possibly having difficulties finding the space and time to use the leave. The reform has however been heavily criticized, especially for its possibilities to affect gender equality, as men are expected to transfer days to female close kin or even a nanny. Furthermore, the control of who is using the leave, and do not work at the same (which is illegal), is made difficult when the circle of users is opened up. It has also been pointed out that this reform is a clear step away from an individual social insurance that applies to all residents in Sweden.
…and less flexibility
Along with those measures to increase the policy’s flexibility, steps have been taken to ensure that the aim of taking care of newborn children is not lost. It was deemed that the flexibility in some cases was actually too great, and parents used the leave too flexibly. Hence, in 2014 age restrictions were introduced, stipulating that most of the leave had to be used during the first four years of the child’s life. This restriction led to that some more days were used earlier in the child’s life but as most of the parental benefit was always used during the first year, the age restriction has not affected the uptake to any large extent. However, it has contributed to a slight change towards a more gender equal use of parental benefit days as men have increased their use of days before the child turns four more than women have (ISF, 2020).
The group of parents that immigrate to Sweden with preschool children has been more affected by reforms in the 2010s. Before 2014 an immigrating parent got access to the full parental benefit when arriving with children in preschool age. This was restricted with the argument that long parental leaves for immigrant parents may both hinder the integration of children in ECEC as well as hinder parents from participating in activities for labour market integration, such as language studies. As parental benefit is paid by the state while labour market integration activities and ECEC are municipal responsibilities, there is a clear short-term incentive for the municipality to encourage parental benefit use. Hence, to further restrict the possibilities to use the parental benefit for children born abroad, restrictions based on the child’s age at immigration were introduced in 2017. However, research had shown that that parents immigrating with children did not use very much leave before the reform, and such use did not clash with other activities if it was not a very long leave (Duvander & Mussino, 2021). Nevertheless, early evaluations of the reform indeed showed that it led to a reduction in use of parental benefit during the first two years in Sweden for immigrating parents, but the reform has not affected children’s enrolment in preschool, parents’ participation (or pass rates) in language classes, or earnings or participation in labour market policy interventions (IFAU, 2024).
Leave use
When describing how the leave use has developed there are several measures that can be used. On a national level the number of days of parental benefit is of course dependent on the number of children born, but also on how many days parents use the first year and how many benefit days they save for later use. In the 2010’s the number of parental benefit days taken increased while the number of children born remained stable. This was mainly due to men taking more parental benefit days. During the pandemic (2020-2022), the number of days taken decreased, mainly because parents to children older than one year used fewer days. Due to fewer children born, this pattern continued in 2023 when the number of benefit days decreased by four per cent compared to 2022 (SSIA, 2024b). Below we focus on changes and differences by gender, parents’ origin and educational level.
Parental leave use by gender
The gendered share of recipients has shifted by three percentage points during the last 20 years. In 2003, 57 per cent of the recipients were women and 43 per cent men, compared to 2023 when 54 per cent of the recipients were women and 46 per cent were men (SSIA, 2024b).
In Figure 2 we show the annual use by women and men since the turn of the century. Men's share of parental benefit days has increased from around 10 per cent in 1999 to 30 per cent in 2018 but has remained around the same level since then. The average number of days per year for women has decreased over the period from 120 to just over 70. At the same time the average number for men has increased from almost 30 to just under 40 days.
Figure 2. Average number of days of parental benefit and share by men and women (1999-2023)
Source: SSIA (2024d)
Staying with the cross-sectional numbers we find that the total amount of benefit has followed a similar trend as the average number of days. In 2003 women got 80 per cent of the total payments for parental benefit, in 2023 women got 64 per cent (SSIA, 2024d).
On average, the daily amount paid was 25 per cent higher for men than for women, which is due to the difference in men's and women's earnings levels. In addition, as women more often use their low-level days (180 SEK), and more often use the benefit on the basic level (250 SEK), this also results in lower average daily amount. Men who would receive the basic level more often refrain from using the parental benefit (ISF, 2017).
As parents in Sweden have the right to take parental leave both with and without benefit, SSIA has also started to publish figures on unpaid days. It should be clear that this is an estimation and not a precise measure as there is no documentation regarding unpaid leave days in the Swedish administrative data. SSIA cannot be sure whether the parent has worked during the days in between the benefit days. However, investments in correctly estimating the paid and unpaid days on leave have been done and discussed intensively (Duvander & Viklund, 2020; ISF, 2013; ISF, 2023; SSIA, 2018b; SSIA, 2020). When taking both paid and unpaid parental leave into account, both gender inequality within parental couples and inequalities between socioeconomic groups becomes apparent as it is mainly middle to high income parents who use unpaid days. However, in proportion to their paid leave it seems that women and men use as much unpaid leave. The consequences in absolute number of days are of course very different as women use more benefit days (ISF, 2023).
Parental leave by origin
When turning to other ways to categorize parents than gender, one obvious divide is between parents from different origins. We know that immigrant women use the parental benefit to the same extent as native-born women but a much larger share of the days are used in the first year, they are thus not using the flexibility and unpaid days as much (Mussino & Duvander, 2016). Also, we know that immigrant fathers are more often refraining from using any benefit and that that they have been slower than native-born fathers in increasing their use (Ma et al, 2019). A major underlying factor to any differences is different positions on the labour market and this is clearly visible in the benefit level of various groups (see Table 1). We see that women more often than men use the basic level of benefit and that the proportion varies greatly between parents of various origins. The reason that men more seldom use the parental benefit at the basic level is mainly that men with no income refrain from using the benefit, but also a somewhat better position on the labour market among immigrant men than immigrant women.
Proportion of beneficiaries at basic level only, per cent | Average amount (regardless of benefit level), SEK per day | |||
Parents' region of birth | Women | Men | Women | Men |
Sweden | 2.1 | 0.6 | 712 | 843 |
The Nordic countries* | 5.5 | 1.3 | 710 | 853 |
EU 27** | 7.9 | 1.8 | 646 | 819 |
Rest of Europe | 12.7 | 2.0 | 590 | 786 |
Sub-Saharan Africa | 34.4 | 6.3 | 414 | 679 |
Asia except Middle east | 28.0 | 4.8 | 505 | 779 |
Middle east, North Africa and Turkey | 31.3 | 5.8 | 451 | 704 |
North America | 12.0 | 4.3 | 678 | 806 |
South America | 12.4 | 3.0 | 602 | 783 |
Oceania | 8.3 | 4.4 | 718 | 843 |
All | 7.4 | 1.6 | 650 | 814 |
Table 1. Parental benefit at the basic level and average payment regardless of compensation level in 2023 by region of birth
*Except Sweden, **except the Nordic countries, Source: SSIA (2024b)
Socioeconomic position
The share of parents who use the parental benefit more or less equally has increased during the last years. SSIA publish a measure of parents using somewhere between 40 to 60 per cent of the days each, as to indicate gender equal use. Figure 3 shows that since 2005 the proportion of parents using the benefit equally according to the SSIA measure has doubled among parents of all educational groups, but the differences remain large. It is very clear that the highly educated parents much more often share more or less equally, and the difference compared to parents with lower education remains throughout the period up to children born in 2021. The reason for the temporary drop in 2014 is probably connected to the age restriction introduced at the time.
Figure 3. Proportion of parents who shared parental benefit days equally (40/60) when the child is two years old for children born 2005-2021
Source: SSIA (2024g)
Discussion: Parental leave in country context
It is evident from the review so far that the Swedish parental leave is still changing and adopting to changing societal and parental needs over time. The use of the parental benefit is developing and increasingly so towards a gender equal use. It is a vibrant area of research and much of the studies, evaluating reforms or following the development of use and its consequences, are found in grey reports at the government agencies, especially Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA) and The Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (ISF). We can be confident that the development is followed and that the parental leave will remain an important part of the Swedish family policy with large political interest. And we can be sure that the parental leave will continue to develop in various directions. But does the parental leave set-up and use matter for social sustainability in Sweden? We take the question to discuss whether parental leave development during the last 20 years matters for gender equality, social equality between parents and economic security of families with young children.
Regarding gender equality the parental leave has no doubt lead to more gender equal sharing of the caring of the child during the first period of life. We also know that this matters for future income careers (Nylin et al 2021; Billingsley et al 2024). Nevertheless, the negotiating over leave still takes place between parents, and the leave is still unequally divided. We want to point out a group that is paying for the now strong policy incentives to share the leave between parents, which is the parent who takes responsibility when the other parent does not do so. In a typical case, when fathers are not using their benefit days, the child is left with a shorter leave period, which in some cases leads to a childcare gap before ECEC is available. In cases when the reason behind the non-use is a conflict, it may be that the other parent will not transfer benefit days, and in all cases the benefit days that are reserved cannot be transferred. Such a situation may arise when the parents live together but also, and more concerning and more common, when parents are not living together. These mothers may find themselves in a precarious situation where it falls on them to make sure that the other parent steps up and uses his leave (Duvander & Lundqvist, 2025).
The intersection between incentives for gender equality and the child’s best interest can be seen as in conflict here. It calls for attention to situations when parents have joint custody on paper, but one parent is left with full responsibility due to the other’s lack of engagement. Also, other reforms have made this group of sole responsible parents more vulnerable, in particular the automatic sharing of child allowance and state withdrawal of maintenance support. A worrying development is if fathers get more rights but do not use them, leaving their children with less time with their parents in total, as well as putting the mothers in difficult situations. An unintended consequence could in addition be more filing for sole custody among these mothers. Currently in Sweden there is a debate about parents’ right to sole custody in relation to the other parent using violence, which has led to a legal change to make it easier to get sole custody under such circumstances (MFoF, 2024). From this may follow more discussions about other situations where sole custody is suitable.
Regarding the question of social equality, we can see different patterns of parental leave use in different socioeconomic groups. Parents in higher socioeconomic positions seem to be more likely to extend their leave with unpaid days. For parents with lower socioeconomic status, the unpaid leave is less accessible.
For those who are not well established in the labour market, the incentives to work before becoming a parent might be hard to follow, as the possibility of a stable position on the labour market is slight. And for parents in a precarious work situation, parental leave might increase the precariousness as it can be hard to come back to the earlier position after being absent for a while. In addition, precarious workers are rarely covered by collective agreements that top up the parental benefit. Further, for the most vulnerable parents, who are not established in the labour market at all, there is a risk that the parental benefit, even at the basic level, can become an alternative source of income instead of unemployment benefits. The consequence in the long run may be delayed labour market entrance.
Regarding the question of economic security of families with young children, the raised basic level can be seen as an effort to secure the economic situation for all families with young children. Women with weak economic positions have been seen to increase their use of parental benefit after this change. However, the importance of the raised basic level should not be exaggerated as the most vulnerable still need to complement the parental benefit with municipal financial assistance to achieve a decent standard of living (Duvander & Lundqvist, 2025). The administrative inefficiency of a system with benefits from various sources can for sure be discussed. In addition, while women in stronger labour market positions share leave with the father increasingly and thereby use less benefit days, we can see increased differences in income trajectories between different groups of women. This follows a general trend in Sweden with increased income and earnings inequality.
We also want to draw attention to the recent change, allowing other than parents use parental benefit. This is a clear step away from the individual income-related insurance that aims to cover temporary exits from the labour market due to childcare for a newborn child. If a national social insurance that is aimed to make time-off work possible is transformed into a benefit that can be used in different ways, perhaps for someone else to look after the child while the parent continues working, the social insurance has fundamentally changed. What this will lead to is still not known, but it enables even greater variations in use. SSIA will investigate whether the reform changes the uptake and who is using the leave, but so far it is too early to evaluate the effects of this reform as it was just implemented. It is likely that the potential change, if it happens, will be gradual. The change makes it clearly possible that with time the idea of a national parental leave insurance to cover temporary exits from work to care for children, will change.
A major concern receiving increasing attention in Sweden is that the fertility has declined the recent decade, similarly to the trend in the other Nordic countries. The total fertility rate was in 2000 1.54 per woman which increased steadily to 1.98 per woman in 2010. Except for a temporary stagnation during the first period of the pandemic, it has since declined to 1.43 per woman in 2024. It seems that all groups of men and women are delaying childbearing, in all areas of Sweden and at all income and educational levels, for women of all parities (number of children) and at all ages up to age 40 (Ohlsson-Wijk & Andersson 2022). The Swedish parental leave has earlier been seen as a major reason for relatively high fertility in Sweden so the recent change obviously challenge how parental leave may continue to incentivise childbearing.
We want to conclude with referring to the aim of the parental leave in Sweden; to make it possible to combine family and work, which implies the goals of gender equality and economic equality between families with and without children. The parental leave has been reformed over time as different measures are needed to meet these goals today compared to when the parental leave was introduced in the 1970s. Yet, it is too early to conclude whether the recent changes of the Swedish parental leave policy are actually going in a direction of sustainable policy, and the answer is in part a political one. While gender equality has taken major steps forward, economic and social inequality between parents have actually increased. It may therefore be argued that changes aimed at adapting to a new situation of increased inequality, primarily based labour market restructuring, are needed. One way forward to achieve social sustainability would be to consider labour market policies and family policies together. To broaden the concept of sustainability also to the ecological pillar would require more radical changes. Perhaps this is the time to construct new dimensions of social policy.
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